The Time Traveller's Boyfriend
by goldenslider
Summary: A new boy at school reminds Ryan Evans of someone he used to love. But what happens when he falls in love with the new boy Troy Bolton, who just happens to be a time traveller from the future?
1. Chapter 1

_I was thirteen the first time I knew I was gay._

_There was this guy who used to work at the club house, and I used to fancy him so much, even Shar used to tease me. He was a lot older. About 19 or 20 years old, but that didn't mater. He was so amazing._

_His name was Brent._

_For the three months he worked there, we got on pretty good. It was a bit odd, having him under our employ, him being told what to do by my parents, but he didn't mind. He just got on with his job._

_We would talk, laugh, annoy my sister together. He told me that he was gay, and that gave me the courage to tell him about me. He didn't know I loved him, I mean, how could I tell him…_

_I was so much in love with him that I couldn't stand it._

_I haven't seen him since my fourteenth birthday._

_That day, after the party that Sharpay insisted we have, while everyone was leaving, Brent gives me a small box, wrapped in the most beautiful paper I've seen. It was nothing like the balloons or 'happy birthday' paper like on so many of my other presents, this was covered in a golden holo-foil paper that shone in the sunlight, that when held at certain angles, you could see a bird, moving across the paper._

_It seemed such a shame to ruin that image. But the item inside the box was even more beautiful than the wrapping paper._

_It was a golden chain, with a circle-shaped pendant dangling from it. The image on the front of the pendant was that of a bird, of its head and left wing, with its right wing only just visible under it's head._

_It was the image of a falcon, he told me. He said that the bird reminded him of me, of how I soar into the hearts of those around me, and how I seem to soar as I am dancing._

_I gave him a hug, and as I held on to him, his big arms wrapped around me, I saw my father's disapproving eye. He didn't like me getting friendly with the staff. Especially with male ones, now that he knew I liked guys._

_We talked for another few minutes before he had to get back to work. As he tried to leave, I hugged him again, and he whispered something into my ear. Before he could pull away, I gave him a soft kiss._

_I know it was a stupid thing to do, especially with my parents hanging around, but what he whispered was so touching. He didn't seem to mind, he just smiled at me softly and walked away, looking back at me as he went._

_When we came back to the club house the next day, he was gone. When I asked my father what had happened to him, he said that Brent had come to see him first thing that morning and handed in his resignation. I swore at my father, accusing him of making Brent leave, blaming him that he must have said something to cause him to go._

_My father just said that he had already accepted it, and had already found someone to take over the shift full time._

_It took almost a month for me to start talking to my father again._

_So why am I bringing this up now, 3 years later?_

_Well, there's a new guy in school who started a few days ago, and I swear he is a dead ringer for Brent. He has the same facial expressions, same messy style of hair, even the same smile._

_His name's Troy Bolton. He just moved here from a place I have never heard of before._

_I know it can't be him. I mean, this new guy is the same age as me. Brent would be about 22 now, and I'm sure he's making something better of his life than he could have had working as a pool boy for a rich jerk. (It's no secret that I dislike my father. I still blame him for making Brent leave.)_

_So since the new guy Troy is in a few of my classes, I'm being friendly enough to him, even if he does remind me of a guy I used to have the hots for 3 years ago. He's nice enough, and I'm sure you can guess that I think he's kinda hot too._

Ryan put the diary back under his mattress, and lay down on the bed, putting his hands behind his head.

He closed his eyes. He moved his right hand to his neck, feeling for the pendant that constantly dangled from the gold chain. He ran a finger over the falcon, feeling the cool metal.

Since the day he was given it, he had never taken it off. It was a memory: every time he touched it, felt it move under his clothes, or saw it in the mirror each morning as he stepped out the shower, he thought of Brent.

He wasn't looking forward to school tomorrow. Drama teacher Miss Darbus had, in her infinite wisdom, decided to assign an awful piece of homework for her drama class to write, star and direct in their own ten minute piece, pairing each person up with another in the class.

Miss Darbus, for reasons only known to herself, decided to split up the usual pairing of Ryan and Sharpay, and paired Sharpay up with Gabriella Montez. Sharpay wasn't happy with the arrangement, letting her voice be known on the subject. Gabriella too wasn't very keen on working with the female Evans.

Their verbal fights were well known through out the school, ever since Gabriella had dared try out for the lead role in the winter musical a year ago.

As Ryan said to Sharpay the night before, perhaps Miss Darbus was trying to bring an end to their rivalry. Sharpay however couldn't care less if Miss Darbus was trying to play referee, and Sharpay had already thought up a perfect idea for their sketch. One where Sharpay could easily lord it over Gabriella without being told off for it.

Ryan, without Sharpay as a partner, was partnered with the new boy Troy. Not that Ryan minded. He could get along with anyone, unlike his sister who would bully people into doing her mindless work.

The next day, during drama class, Miss Darbus allowed the class to split up to enable them more freedom to create without being interrupted by others working on their sketches. Some were sent to the cafeteria, some were sent to library, and some remained in the drama classroom.

Ryan and Troy had been in the two groups sent to the cafeteria.

Over the hour, they talked, Ryan asking questions about where Troy had lived before he moved to Albuquerque (a small town in California called Sunnyville), why he had moved here (his father got a job as a lawyer at the town's court house), and other small things.

After trying to forget about the idea, he asked Troy if they had met before, saying that Troy reminded him of someone he once knew.

Troy said that it was doubtful, as he had never been in this town before.

Getting back to work on their drama piece, Troy had suggested a science-fiction element that he thought would be interesting – that he play a time traveller who landed in the year 2007, and Ryan play a native of that time.

Ryan loved the idea, and just as they began to work on the script, the bell went for the end of class. Troy suggested that they could continue after school, and meet back here.

Ryan agreed.

Offering Troy a lift home after school, Troy politely declined, saying that he wasn't going straight home. Ryan thought nothing of it, but when he offered again to Troy for the fifth time after they would work on their assignment for a week, he began to wonder.

Troy had been acting a bit weird, asking questions about things that everyone else knew, like when in home economics class, he didn't know what a microwave was.

And he always seemed to be fiddling with his watch. He would always be pressing the buttons and watching the screen with focused eyes, and on one occasion Ryan could have swore he saw Troy talking to it.

So when Troy politely refused a lift home for the seventh time in a row, Ryan had enough. He wanted to know what was up with Troy.

He followed Troy in his car, keeping at far enough distance that Troy didn't see him.

He stopped as Troy stepped up to a cash machine, and he saw him looking around slightly before putting his arm against the left side of the unit, as if leaning for support. He wasn't sure, but he hadn't seen Troy put a card into the slot before he started pressing the buttons. A few seconds later, Troy took the money out the slot and carried on walking.

Ryan continued following him until Troy turned down an alley. Ryan got out the car and carried on from far behind, keeping out of sight in case Troy should turn around.

Troy stopped in front of a garage. He pressed a button on his watch, and the door opened, revealing inside a large, weird shaped object. It was almost as tall as Troy, with him overshadowing it by several inches. To Ryan, it resembled a 3d version of a dodecahedron, a 12-sided object. It seemed to be made of a metal structure and glass panels, with two panels at the front completely see-through, and the others surrounding it being frosted.

Ryan saw Troy pressing another button on his watch, and the front panel split in two, creating two gull-wing doors, except they opened outwards rather than upwards. Then the garage door started to close, and Ryan couldn't see anymore.

The next day at school, when they were sitting in the library again working on finishing their script, Ryan asked Troy if he could borrow a few dollars since he forgot his wallet. Troy said that he didn't have any money on him, or he'd be happy to lend Ryan some.

So Ryan came back by asking why doesn't he just use his watch at the cash machine again and get some.

This made Troy tense slightly, but he tried to put Ryan off. Ryan says that he followed him yesterday, saw what he did with the cash machine, and saw him with the metal structure in a garage.

Troy froze, he went white, and for a second Ryan thought that he was gonna faint. But suddenly, a voice spoke, asking Troy if he was alright, as whatever the voice was detected a sudden rise in temperature and heart rate.

There was no one else in the room with them. As Ryan was looking around, Troy had covered his wrist. More importantly, he had covered his watch.

The voice spoke again, and this time Ryan could clearly hear it muffled. He looked at the hand covering the watch, then looked up to meet Troy's eyes staring straight at him.

When Ryan asked if Troy has a talking watch, Troy laughed. He almost sounded maniacally at one point, before he almost sounded like he was beginning to cry.

The watch beeped now, and for a third time asked Troy if he was ok.

"I'm fine Padil." Troy uncovered the watch. "Deactivate biometric mode."

The watch beeped twice, then the screen went dark. Ryan was just sitting there dumbstruck.

"If I tell you, will you promise to keep it a secret?"

Ryan only nodded. He was still slightly unnerved by the whole thing. Troy unclasped the watch from him arm, and handed it softly to Ryan. It felt warm in Ryan's touch.

"It's called a PADIL," Troy said, "it's short for personal artefact display interface lykenator."

Ryan moved it about in his hands.

"It's not from around here."

This time Ryan laughed. "Yeah I know, you just moved here with it."

When Troy replied, "That's not what I mean.", Ryan felt worried.

"So what do you mean?" Ryan was almost too afraid to ask.

Troy looked into Ryan's eyes, both of them determined not to blink.

"It's not from this time."

Ryan couldn't stand it any longer, he had to blink.

"It's from the future?" he asked.

Troy nodded.

Ryan looked at the device in his hands, before he passed it back over to Troy.

As Troy took it, Ryan asked, "Are you from the future?"

And this time when Troy nodded, Ryan fainted.

The first thing Ryan saw when he opened his eyes was Troy's arm and watch going in circles around his head. _No, not his watch. What did he call it, a Padil?_ He swiped at Troy's arm, forcing him to stop.

He tried to stand, but his body betrayed him, and he fell back in his seat.

"Careful," Troy said softly as he started swirling his arm in front of Ryan's face again. "you just had a momentary loss of consciousness. Padil says you might not be fully recovered for another nought point two hours."

Ryan batted again at Troy's arm.

"I don't believe you."

"Padil doesn't lie. It checked its facts against its medical dictionary…"

Ryan interrupted him.

"I don't mean about that. I mean about you being from the future." This time, when Ryan tried to stand, he did, and successfully moved away from the table. "Whatever you say it is, that thing is clearly just a watch with a computerised voice in it to tell the time. Lots of things have stuff like that."

"Then why did you ask if it was from the future?"

This stumped Ryan. He couldn't come up with an answer.

"If you don't believe me, that's up to you." Troy continued. "You asked me for the truth, and I gave it to you."

Ryan turned back to face Troy.

"If you are from the future, where's your time machine?"

Troy never broke eye contact. "You've already seen it." Ryan looked down to Troy's arm, at the device strapped there. "Not Padil."

Ryan let out the breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

"That thing. At the garage."

Troy nodded. "That weird metal thing as you call it. That's my time machine." He looked at Ryan's confused face. "Would you like to see it?"

Ryan just sat there, frozen. He had two options. One, he could run away from Troy and try never to see or speak to him again, so that his madness didn't rub off onto Ryan. Or two, take Troy up on his offer. If Troy was making it up, he would be found out when the time machine would fail to travel in time.

Either way, it would mean that Ryan would never speak to Troy again anyway.

It took ten minutes to get from the school to the garage by car.

The entire drive there was made in silence. Troy kept glancing at Ryan as he retraced the path he drove yesterday. Troy had given up trying to get Ryan to say something, Ryan just kept his eyes firmly on the road.

Ryan stopped at the top of the side street as he had done yesterday. He was about to switch off the engine as Troy spoke again.

"If you follow the road to the next opening, you can get in that way."

Ryan never responded, just touched the pedal and continued forward.

It was another few minutes until Troy had got the garage door open. Ryan stood several steps behind him, his car keys still in his hand.

The metal machine was the first thing he saw. He froze as Troy put his arm to the front of it, and almost felt faint when it lit up from the inside.

Troy noticed him standing there, stiff.

"You don't have to do this you know." He waited for any response from Ryan. Nothing. "You can get in your car, drive away." Still nothing. "I wouldn't bother you again."

That knocked Ryan out his trance. When he thought about it, he didn't mind being bothered by Troy. Apart from the whole saying he's a time traveller part, he was actually a nice guy.

Ryan slowly stepped forward until he was at Troy's side.

Troy smiled at him slightly. "Don't freak out, okay."

He barely gave Ryan a chance to answer, before he softly took Ryan's right hand by the wrist, and pressed it up against the top panel.

Ryan jerked back instantly. The glass panel was warm, it vibrated slightly, but more than that, it felt alive.

"Are you ok?" Troy sounded deeply concerned.

Ryan reached out on his own accord, his hand hovering close to the panel he just touched.

"Ryan you don't have to."

Flesh touched glass, and Ryan felt the heat of the machine rise through him.

"It feels kinda cool." Ryan said as he took his hand away.

Troy frowned. "It shouldn't be at a low temperature. The time machine has a constant working temperature of forty two degrees." He put his own hand against it. "See, it's still at a warm temperature."

"I don't mean cool as in cold," he said smiling. "I mean it's cool, neat, interesting."

Troy seemed to understand, and smiled back. "So you believe me now?"

Ryan's mouth lost the smile, but he still sounded slightly happy, which was a vast improvement

"Let's just say you're story is getting more believable."

"You wanna see inside?"

The doors opened when Troy told them to, and suddenly the inside of the machine became brighter. Troy bent down slightly as he turned and sat on the single black panel that was carved into the inside of the metal structure.

He patted the silver panel next to him, silently asking Ryan to sit next to him. Ryan looked back with a worried look on his face.

Troy laughed softly. "It's not gonna hurt you."

As Ryan sat down, a green prism rose up from the floor and rested on its stand.

"Did you invent this?" Ryan asked as he was still looking around above him.

Troy suddenly started laughing, and he looked at Ryan and realised he wasn't.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh." He tapped a few places on the prism in front of him. There were no buttons that Ryan could see. But as Troy stopped, a screen appeared in front of them. Not connected to anything in any way, just floating there in front of them.

"It's a holographic projection." Troy said, as a picture of what seemed to be a young coloured man appeared on screen. "This is Chadwell Danforth. He started building this two years ago, and he finished it three months ago." He looked over at Ryan quickly and added, "My time, of course."

"Did you know him?"

Troy went back to the prism in front of him, and pressed in a few more places. A new picture overlay the old one.

"That's me and Chad two months ago." The image showed Troy and the same man with five other people, all celebrating with drinks in their hands. "That's from the first successful time jump."

"How old is he?"

The image disappeared, and the original picture popped back up, this time with statistics at the side. Name, age, height, weight, and other details.

"Same as me." Troy noticed Ryan looking at him with a strange look on his face. "Yeah, I know he's young, but the guy's a genius." Ryan went back to watching the screen. "I worked with him for six months. Can't say I ever imagined actually travelling in time but."

He tapped the prism and the screen faded away.

"You weren't supposed to travel back in time?" Troy shook his head. "So what happened?"

Just as Troy was about to reply, Ryan's mobile phone rang.

"Sorry." He mumbled as he stood away from the seat and brought his mobile out his pocket and answered.

"I gave someone a lift home." Pause. "Well I didn't know that." Another silence. "Tell dad I'll be there soon." This time, the silence went on for almost thirty seconds. "Alright, Shar. I'm on my way now."

He put the mobile away and he looked at Troy.

"Sorry Troy. I have to go." Troy stood up from the machine. "I'm really sorry. Can we talk again tomorrow? There's so much I wanna ask."

Troy smiled. "Sure."

"Can I give you a lift to where you're staying?"

Part of the smile faded from Troy's face. "I'm already here." He twirled around and brought his arms out in a 'this is my place' move. "Can't afford anyone else."

"But what about the money you took from the cash machine?"

Troy shook his head. "I only took enough for food and clothes."

Ryan took a few steps closer to his car. He paused for a moment before opening the driver door.

"You can stay at my place." He said, turning back around. "If you like."

Ryan started to climb into the car.

"Your place?"

Ryan sat on the seat and put the keys in. "Can't have a guest from the future staying in a hell hole like this."

He watched as Troy smiled brightly, and entered the time machine. A few seconds later, he came out with clothes in his hands. He put them in his school bag, and pressed a button on his wrist device, and the doors to the time machine closed as smoothly as they opened.

He locked the garage door, and jumped in Ryan's car.

"Are you sure your parents wont mind?"

The engine revved as they drove off. "Sharpay has friends staying over all the time. Dad's hardly home these days and mom's out most evenings so they don't mind."

"Thanks Ryan."

Ryan looked over at Troy smiling, and he couldn't help but smile in return.

"It couldn't be comfortable sleeping in that place."

"It wasn't that bad. I had a fold-up bed. That was all I really needed."

"But what about washing and showering?" Ryan's face flushed. "Not that I was thinking about you showering that is."

The statement seemed to go over Troy's head. "I would go to school early and use the gymnasium ones."

"At least tonight you'll have a warm bed and some good food. Dad's home so we'll be having a proper meal full of 'nutrition'." Ryan stuck his tongue out in a 'yuck' expression.

Troy smiled a bit. "If your father is coming home perhaps I shouldn't come. I don't want to get in the way of your time with your father."

Ryan shook his head. "Okay, first off, we have to get you speaking like a normal teenager. You might talk like that from whatever time you come from, but here you need to fit in. Second, I'd rather have dinner with you than my dad any day."

Ryan thought for a moment. "That didn't sound right did it?"

Troy just looked confused.

"What I mean is me and dad don't exactly get on much anymore. He's not exactly proud to have a gay son. We've never really spoken much more than a few minutes at a time since he found out."

He glanced over at Troy to judge his reaction. But Troy was looking confused.

"You didn't know I was gay, did you?"

"Why would your father not be proud to have a happy child? Would he rather you be unhappy?"

"Gay doesn't mean happy anymore Troy." He kept one eye on the road, and one eye on Troy. "It means that I like guys." Still reading Troy's confusion, "You know? I don't go out with women, I only go out with men."

Troy didn't say anything. Ryan looked at him again. "Does that bother you?"

Troy shook his head. "In my time, people are allowed to see whoever they wish. We call it omnisexual." Ryan pulled the car into the driveway. "If we like someone, it doesn't matter if they are male, female or alien."

Ryan pulled the car to a stop and stared at Troy. "Do you really have aliens in the future?"

Troy just laughed as he got out the car.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: characters from this story are based on named characters from High School Musical. No copyright infringement is intended. There are also two characters in this story that are gay. No offense is intended to the actors that play these characters. The idea for this story is based on "The Girl From Tomorrow", an Australian drama from the 1990's. No infringement is intended.

Thanks for reviewing, please continue. New chapter every Friday.

* * *

"I should warn you, my sister may get a bit over-friendly with you."

Ryan locked the car door and started up to the steps to the front door.

"If she tries to cling to you just push her off."

"If I can survive for two weeks in a strange time, I'm sure I can cope with your sister."

Ryan put his key in the lock.

"If you survive my family through dinner, you can tell me everything about you tonight. Including why you travelled in time in the first place." Ryan stuck out his hand. "Deal?"

Troy took it and shook. "Deal."

"You're always saying I should have friends over." Ryan said from the couch in the living room.

His father sat in the big leather chair next to the fireplace, his mother on the couch next to Ryan.

Troy had been left standing in the foyer alone, or would have been alone until Sharpay clung to his side like his backpack was.

"It would have been nice to have had some warning." Nigel Evans said. "The one night I come home for a family meal, and you bring home a stray puppy to join us."

"You should have told us you were bringing someone with you." His mother said from next to him. "I don't think we have enough food prepared."

"Then he can have mine." Ryan looked to his father then back to his mother, "Somehow I don't feel very hungry all of a sudden."

"That remark better not have been directed at me."

"Yeah it was dad." Ryan thought quickly. "You've never liked any of my boyfriends have you?"

His mother smiled. His father didn't.

"Troy's your boyfriend?" Mom asked. "Since when? I thought he only joined your school last week?"

He had to think quickly for a proper explanation.

"Just for a few days. We got partnered together for a drama project, and we just hit it off."

He internally congratulated himself. He was a good liar.

"Why haven't you said anything to us?" his father asked.

He glanced at his mother, who was still smiling. He felt a bit guilty lying to her, but if it screwed with his father's head, he was prepared to face the wrath of being found out later.

"It was early days. I didn't wanna jinx it."

"Of course he didn't." Mom added. "He's met someone he likes, he didn't want to spoil it." She grinned at Ryan before turning back to Dad. "You didn't introduce me to your parents until we were going out for a month."

"And you want him to spend the night?" Dad asked, ignoring her last comment. "With you? In your room?"

Ryan's face dropped as he realised what his father was meaning.

"No dad, nothing like that." He thought hard again. He really should have worked on this story more before approaching his parents. "His parents are away on a business trip, and he didn't want to stay on his own, and he didn't have any one else he could stay with. So I said he could stay with me"

His dad raised an eyebrow.

"I meant in the guest room." Ryan added quickly.

"Of course he can stay love." His mother smiled again. Her face would be sore by the end of the night at this rate. "It's just it would have been better if you had asked us first."

She glanced over at the door leading to the foyer, where she could see Sharpay softly slapping Troy on the arm.

"I think we better have dinner before Sharpay tries to steal your boy." She laughed to herself as she got up and started walking to the door. "I'll share out the food more so there's enough to go around."

Ryan started to follow, but his father put his hand on his shoulder.

"No funny business Ryan." He said with a strict voice. "I mean it."

"Sure dad."

Sharpay followed their mother and father to the dining room, and Ryan called to say they'd be a minute.

"You shouldn't have lied to your parents for me." Troy said, finally putting his backpack on the bench to the side of the stairs. "Your father didn't seem very pleased."

"Like I care what my dad thinks. I told you him and me don't get on very well."

"Why did you not tell him the truth?"

"You think they would have believed me?" Troy shook his head. Ryan smiled. "It's better to let them think you're my boyfriend." He stopped for a second. "You don't mind me saying that, do you?"

"Of course not. You are going out of your way to help me, now that I can't return back to my own time."

Ryan smiled again.

"Come on, we better get in there before Shar eats off our plates."

"It's not fair." Sharpay pouted.

She and her mother were currently in the dining room, laying plates on the table.

"Why do all the cute ones have to be gay?"

Her mother carried on putting down the knives and forks, ignoring her outburst.

"You just keep away from him, little missy, you hear?" She waves a knife at her in a potentially-threatening way, but Sharpay never seemed to notice. "This could be the perfect guy to break Ryan out of his anxiety."

Sharpay scoffed.

"You know how he's been ever since that pool guy. Every boy he goes out with he tries to compare to him."

Sharpay stopped the work she wasn't really doing.

"He does look a bit like the pool guy…" she turned to her mother. "Don't ya think?"

Her mother went back to the table.

"Don't you start, honey."

Ryan and Troy entered the room, and immediately, Troy offered to help. Ryan Sharpay just looked each other, Sharpay having an incredible look on her face that to Ryan seemed to say "suck-up".

"Don't be silly, dear." Mom replied. "You just take a seat and enjoy yourself."

Ryan, having noticed Sharpay's expression, stepped over to her.

"Let me help you with that sis. We wouldn't want you to break a nail."

He took the last of the glasses from her hands and put them down next to the plates.

"How come you get the cute guys?" she whispered in his ear.

"Maybe cos I'm the cuter Evans." He smirked and put the last glass down, missing the horrified look on Sharpay's face. "Where's dad?" he called so his mother could hear in the next room.

She appeared in the door frame two seconds later.

"He said he had to check on something in his office." She turned away again, "but he'll be here in a few minutes."

The door opened and was closed behind him as his father walked in.

"Told you" Mom called from the kitchen.

"So Troy, what do your parent's do?" Dad asked mid-way through the meal.

Ryan looked over at Troy, but Troy held his gaze on his father.

"My father is a lawyer for a local company. And my mother works as his secretary. My father was offered a promotion from his old job, so we moved to here so he could accept it."

Ryan smiled. Troy had obviously rehearsed his story before, as he said it in the exact same manner that he had to him a few days ago.

His father on the other hand seemed to listening with pure interest.

"And you said they were away on business?"

"Yes, they, uh, had business in another city." Troy obviously hadn't prepared that story as well as his other.

"You know, you look really familiar." He said in return. "Have you ever worked for me before as a pool boy?"

Ryan's heart sunk in his chest as Troy squirmed slightly in his seat. He should have known his father couldn't resist bringing up his old crush. But for his father to also notice the similarity between Troy and Brent…

And worse, Padil on troy's arm beeped three times. Ryan gave him a horrified look, just as Troy tapped the screen. It monitors Troy. It spoke before when Troy was stressed. What if the device spoke in front of his parents?

"Oh, stop grilling him love." Mom said with her glass of wine half way to her lips. She took a sip. "Let the boy eat his meal."

Dad kept his eye on Troy.

"I'm only trying to get to know my son's new boyfriend."

Ryan looked to his father. Troy looked to Ryan, then back to Mr Evans.

He put his knife and fork down on the plate.

"That was a lovely meal Harriet." Nigel said, starting to stand up.

"You leaving already, daddy?" Sharpay asked, a piece of bread getting picked at in her fingers.

"I have to get back to the country club, sweetheart." He moved around the table to stand beside Troy. "It was nice to meet you, Troy." He offered his hand, which Troy took. "I wish you and my son all the happiness."

Both Ryan and Sharpay watched the exchange open-mouthed. Never before had their father shown so much interest in a boyfriend of Ryan's.

They watched as he took his plate into the kitchen, return, kiss their mother on the cheek, kiss Sharpay on the top of her head, and leave, and they heard the front door close seconds later.

Mom stood up, and started picking up her dishware. Troy stood up also, and did the same.

"Please let me help you, Mrs Evans."

She smiled at Troy.

"I won't say no this time." She glared at Ryan and Sharpay. "Those two never help with the clearing up."

Once Troy and Mom had both cleared the table and left the room, Sharpay moved out of her seat and sat next to Ryan.

"Alright, butt-munch. Spill."

"Spill what?"

"Come on, even dad noticed how much he looked like your pool boy."

"This has nothing to do with Brent, Shar." He replied, but something in his voice belied that.

"And that crappy excuse he came up with about his parents being on holiday. What's the deal?"

Ryan couldn't hold her gaze.

"Tell me the truth butt-munch." She punched his arm for effect. "Is that Brent's younger brother?"

"I told you Shar," he said, rubbing his arm. "Brent doesn't come into this."

He finally looked at her. Her gaze was too much for him.

"No, he's not Brent's younger brother."

"So how come he looks so much like him then?"

Ryan glanced up as Troy's form moved about in the kitchen.

"I don't know." And seeing Sharpay's look, he added, "I swear." He drank the last of the water in his glass, thinking how to get out of this. "Look Shar. I really like this guy. Don't mess it up for me."

And he gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster. He knew it always worked on her.

It did.

She rubbed his arm where she had hit it.

"Alright." She got up, and put her chair in under the table. "But if you start getting all Brent-eyed again, I'm butting in."

She kissed the top of his head, like their father had done to her just moments ago, and she left the room.

And just like that, Ryan felt guilty for lying to her.

"Your family is very different to the families in my time."

"Any family would be better than mine."

Ryan lay sprawled on the couch, his head hanging over the side of the arm rest; Troy was sat in the chair Mr Evans sat in earlier.

"I don't think your father liked me very much."

Ryan lifted his head to look at Troy.

"He thinks you're my boyfriend. That's why."

He put his head back down and closed his eyes.

"I like your mother." Troy said, his view gazing out the window. "She seems very nice."

"She is." He replied, head still down. "She's always been supportive of me being gay." He finally sat up proper. "Wish I didn't have to lie to her about you."

Troy took his gaze away from the window, and turned to Ryan. Ryan's body was facing him, but his eye line was on the open door to the living room.

"I mean, how cool would it be to tell them that you come from the future?" He looked over to Troy. "What year do you come from anyway? You never said."

"Going by your calendar, I'm from the year twenty eight-sixty."

Ryan looked confused. "So you're from eight hundred years in the future?"

"Eight hundred and fifty three to be exact."

"You don't look a day over two hundred."

Ryan smiled. So did Troy.

"What are you two smiling about?" A voice from the door called, that followed her to the couch.

She pushed Ryan's feet of the cushions, and sat down.

"My sister," Ryan said, raising his arm out to his side as if to demonstrate her, "always the bearer of bad timings."

Sharpay looked between them.

"Oh, were you two having a moment there?"

Ryan ignored her. "Me and Troy were gonna watch a movie together. Do you mind?" He grimaced inward. When did he become so good at lying to her?

"Do I mind joining you?" she said, in a much too perky voice.

"Do you mind leaving us alone to enjoy it?"

She huffed. She stood up, picked up the cushion, and whacked it against the side of Ryan's head, and headed for the door.

"Love you too." He called after her.

He smiled over to Troy, who just had a plain look on his face.

"I wish you wouldn't lie to your sister for me."

Ryan's face straightened.

"Don't worry, she doesn't stay mad for long." He grabbed the remote and switched to a movie channel. "She'll be back in about an hour to apologise." He shifted on the couch to make himself more comfortable. "Which gives us enough time for you to tell me what happened to make you come here. I've been dying to find out all day."


	3. Chapter 3

Time: 6:45pm, Saturday July 27th, 2860

Location: New Frontier Institute Headquarters, Albuquerque

The day of the first successful human traveller in a time travel experiment. All their work, leading up to this point, had paid off.

Taylor McKenzie stepped out from the just opened doors to the sound of applause and cheering. She had become the world's first time traveller. Two months after the first series of test trips using animated matter and animals, she was the first person to actually go back into the past.

She smiled as people crowded around her, clapping her shoulder, congratulating her, welcoming her back.

She had only been gone for less than ten minutes, but for the people she left behind, it was only seconds. She had returned only two seconds after she left.

One second, the time machine was disappearing in a flash of light, and the next, she was returning, the time machine still spinning on the stage specially made for it, and in that second, Taylor had aged ten minutes.

She was now officially ten minutes older than everyone else.

The crowd parted and let someone else in, a man with curly black hair, and he swept up Taylor into his arms and spun her around, before giving her a kiss.

The crowd started wandering away, back to their stations and consoles, and Taylor and her husband started to walk back over to the stage.

"So where's the twenty first century rose you were going to give me?"

She turned to look at him and smiled. "No 'what was the world like'? No 'did you meet anyone there'? Only interested in his present." She kissed his cheek. "Sounds like my Chad."

They reached the doors to the machine, and Chad Danforth stepped inside and sat on the black cushioned seat in the middle of three. Taylor sat on his lap.

She lifted the seat to their right so it flipped back on its hinge, and brought out a yellow daffodil sitting in a glass jar.

"It was all I could find, I'm afraid."

Chad took it from her hands, and kissed her again, the third time in two minutes.

"It's the first thing ever brought back from the past. You could have brought back a bit of rock and I would still love it." He lowered the seat again, and sat the jar on it. He pressed a button on the raised control panel. "Help me download the flight data and I'll give you my present in return?"

"What's your present?"

"Another kiss."

She smiled. That was her answer. A knock came on the metal of the door.

"Look at you." Troy Bolton said as he gazed in at the couple. "Married one day and already can't keep your lips off each other."

They broke apart. "You should have seen 2007 Troy. It was amazing." She had her large smile back on her face. "They actually had automobiles that didn't fly. Like those from the museum."

"Maybe I'll get to see them for myself one day." He looked at Chad. "If someone doesn't hog all the time trips for his wife.

"Can I help it if I'm married to the guy who invented the time machine?"

"I'll forgive you," Troy laughed, "if you let me check the power crystals are okay. Yatesy's wanting to know how much power was used up."

Taylor and Chad both stood up, and Chad picked up the glass jar with his flower as he left the machine.

"I better get going." Taylor clasped her hand around Chad's arm. "Doctor S is waiting for me."

She kissed Chad goodbye, and started walking off.

"You tell Smithy everything now." Troy called after her. "You know how much the doctor has always wanted to travel in time."

He laughed and ducked inside the door.

"Need any help?" Chad asked, his arm now slung over the top of the open door.

Troy flipped up the middle seat. "I'll be fine. Check this, then head back." He reached into his pocket and brought out a small cube. "We still on for drinks tonight?"

Chad scoffed. "First person to travel in time. They'll be buying us drinks for a month."

Chad walked off to the open door leading outside, his flower in hand. Troy removed a second panel that sat under the seat, that revealed six coin shaped objects with imprints on them, each sat within an oblong shaped holder.

"Padil, begin scan."

His watch beeped, and a light flickered on and off on the cube he was holding. He hovered it over each of the six objects, and then stood up again.

"Power crystal C has used up 16% of power," the watch read out in an emotionless tone. "Power crystals D and F have used 2% each."

Troy looked back at the six circles.

Each crystal has a letter above them, but he and Chad had come up with a different way to identify them. They had etched on the top of the power cells using laser an image of six different animals.

It was Chad's idea. Instead of calling them 'power cell A' and 'power cell B', he wanted them to each have individual names.

Troy spoke seemingly to himself, but his watch beeped, recording the information. "The wolf has 84% power remaining, the frog and the ape each have 98% power remaining."

Two beeps came from Padil.

"Information sent to Cathy Yates." It said.

"Work mode cancel, Padil."

Three beeps.

"Close capsule doors."

He stepped back two spaces as the doors to the time machine started closing. They made a clunk as they came together.

"Party time." He said to himself as he walked out the open doors, leaving the other scientists and workers at their stations to finish their work.

He was in the mood to party.

The table rocked slightly as Chad set down the drinks in front of Troy and Taylor. They had been here for the last hour, evidenced by the several empty glasses on their table.

"You'd think that they could give us a table that didn't wobble for the world's first time traveller, don't ya think?" Chad said as he sat down next to Taylor.

"Well if you hadn't spent so much time getting changed," she said, taking hold of her glass, "we could have gotten here earlier and got a good table."

Two people came up to the table and started to congratulate the three of them. This had been going on most of the night. Workers from the Institute, friends and family, people they hadn't met. They all offered their congrats towards the project.

As the two people walked off, Chad leaned over to Troy to talk quietly. Taylor leaned in too.

"Don't look, but I think our little Troy has an admirer."

He carefully twitched his head towards the bar, to a tall man with brown shaggy hair that stood against the bar. He seemed about their age, 18 or 19, a blue striped shirt with a white t-shirt visible underneath, stone-blue jeans, white trainers, and part of a gold belt buckle seen under the shirt.

He was facing their table, but not looking. His gaze was on the other people, at the floor, at the ceiling, anywhere but them.

"He's been looking over here all night." He added.

"He's probably after you." Troy said, and laughed at the horrified look on Chad's face.

"I don't mind sharing you with him, if you want." Taylor added to the joke.

Chad reached for Taylor's hand, and made a show of kissing it twice, then kissing her cheek, then her lips, just in case the guy really was looking at him.

"Come on, Chad." Troy said after the kissing had stopped. "He's probably just envious of us because of the time jump."

Chad looked over again at the man. He glanced over at the table again, but his eyes were definitely fixated on Troy.

"He's staring at you again."

Troy turned his head and looked over, but the guy turned away as soon as Troy met his gaze.

"That only goes to prove he's not blind." Troy laughed. "Who could resist looking at me?"

"You're so full of yourself, aren't ya?"

Troy stood up with his empty glass in his hand.

"Where you going?"

"For another glass of synthehol."

He slowly walked over to the bar, intentionally keeping one eye on his admirer as he went. As he got closer, he saw him glance quickly at him, and then turn back to whatever he was looking at. He came to a stop two steps away from his as he put his empty glass on the bar top.

He asked the bartender for another glass of scotch and rum, and turned to the guy.

"Get you another?" He said, a smile on his lips. "All drinks are on the Institute tonight."

The guy finally locked eyes with Troy for more than a second, and nodded.

"Synthehol or alcohol?" Troy asked.

"Synthehol please. Can't stand waking up in the morning with a hangover."

"Same here." Troy smiled in reply as the drinks started to get made. "Can't exactly work on a time machine if you're drunk can you?" He passed over the glass. "All of the joy of alcohol, with none of the downsides."

The guy took a sip, as Troy waited for his own drink.

"I'm Troy." He offered his hand.

The guy put down the glass, wiped his hand on his jeans, and shook Troy's.

"Jason Cross."

"Haven't seen you before at the Institute have I?" He picked up his new glass and took a gulp.

"Section 4." Jason offered as a response. "They don't let us up in the lab."

Troy leaned back against the bar, mimicking Jason's position. He caught Chad making a face at him from their table, but he ignored it.

"You wanna join us?"

Chad kept making side gestures that Jason couldn't see, and Troy was continuing to ignore. They were here to have fun, and fun is what Troy was intending.

They stayed for another hour, Taylor eventually having had enough and reporting that she was tired after the long day, and Chad reluctantly followed.

When the time came for last orders, Troy had already invited Jason back to his place, and they were on their way there as soon as the bell rang for closing time.

Troy awoke in the morning, his clothes still in a mess on the floor, having been flung there at 2 am by his house guest.

Who was now curiously missing.

Padil was still beeping from the side cabinet, and he reached over and pressed the screen, and crashing back into the middle of the bed with a thump.

Why did they always have to be at the Institute this early?

A voice spoke.

"Troy, I have a recorded message from Jason Cross."

He opened his eyes and looked at the watch.

"Play message."

Another voice spoke, this time the human voice of Jason Cross.

"Had to leave for work, didn't wanna wake you. Come see me at twelve and we can go for lunch."

Troy smiled slightly.

He'd had a good night last night.

He arrived at the Institute five minutes late to find Chad with his arms crossed, glaring at him as he walked in.

"You were great last night, weren't you?" he said in a sarcastic voice. "Hooking up with a guy from 'down there'."

Troy never replied, just took his jacket off, and put on his white lab coat.

"You know you're supposed to stick with people from your own section. It makes it look better."

Troy looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but still never said anything.

"Oh the silent treatment." He followed behind Troy. "That's real mature."

Troy stopped and turned around, Chad almost bumping into him.

"You can talk about being mature Chad." He said, loud enough that two of the technicians close by looked over to them. "I pick up someone who is a nice guy, a good laugh, but happens to work in a lower area, and because of that, I shouldn't see him?" He started working again to the office. "Who am I meant to date from this section? Taylor's married, and I wouldn't fancy you if you were the last person on Earth, Joni and Richie are seeing each other, everyone else is taken."

He picked up his pouch of equipment and strapped it around his waist.

"Who else am I meant to go out with?"

He logged onto the computer and sat down.

Chad stood behind him.

"I'm sorry bud, but you know the management don't like people from different sections seeing each other. In case secrets are spilled or whatever."

"Exactly Chad. Whatever."

He stood up again and started to walk out the room.

"I gotta get started. You mind?"

Chad never replied, and Troy walked off towards the lift.

When Troy reached the floor for the lab, he didn't expect to see what he saw. The room had been ransacked.

Equipment had been thrown everywhere, things had been broken, and the door at the back of the room was off its hinges.

"We had a break in this morning." A security member said to him. "We managed to scare them off before they did too much damage."

"What about the time machine?" he asked, still walking towards it.

"Looks like they couldn't get into it."

Troy touched the frame, and saw a scratch in the metal. He brought his arm to his mouth and spoke.

"Chad, you better get up here. We've had a code blue."

"I'm on my way." A distorted voice called back.

He arrived less than three minutes later and ran over to Troy at the metal structure.

"They just told me." He sounded out of breath. He must have ran up the stairs. "They couldn't get into the capsule?"

Troy pointed to the scratch.

"Looks like they tried."

Chad walked around the machine, putting his hand on various parts of the glass before meeting Troy round the front again.

"Can you do a check on the systems?" he asked, and called for the doors to open. "I'm gonna see if we can check the cameras."

Chad ran away in the direction he came from, and Troy stepped into the machine. He sat on the black seat, as the console rose up and positioned itself in front of him.

A beep, and a screen opened in the air in front of him. He tapped a few places on the green console, and reams of data began appearing on the screen underneath a static image of a spanner and the words 'self diagnosis'.

He stood up and crouched down to the side of the console, and lifted up the two panels to reveal the six rectangular power cell holders.

He brought out from his pouch the cube-shaped device, and set it over the cell with the end shaped as a wolf.

Before he could do anything else, the doors swung shut.

He turned around, still cramped in the small space, and called for the doors to open. They stayed closed.

There were noises coming from the back of the machine, and Troy didn't know what they were. He brought Padil to his mouth.

"Chad, something's up with the machine. It's just locked me inside."

Chad arrived a minute later, and Troy could make out his face through the frosted glass panels. Other workers had gathered round too, trying to force open the doors.

"Chad get me out of here, this thing's going crazy."

The screen floating above the central console had stopped spurting off the data, and was now seemingly flagging up random pages from its memory. Reports from staff, medical records, news reports past and present, all randomly appearing and disappearing.

"Try the emergency exit switch."

"I have." Troy shouted over the loud noise coming from the machine. "It isn't working."

He saw Chad's shadow disappear from the panel, only for it to appear at a different one closer to him.

"If this is your idea of payback for calling you immature…"

"Turn off the power."

Troy reached up to the control panel, and tapped a few positions. The noise grew louder, and the machine started to spin on the stage it was set on.

"Troy shut it down."

He pressed the console again, but all it got him was flung into the seats when the machine started spinning faster.

He couldn't see outside anymore. All he could see was a white light getting brighter as it went faster and faster.

The last thing he heard was Chad screaming his name.

Then there was an explosion, followed by ringing in his ears. The spinning started to slow down quickly, and very soon he was at standstill.

He managed to open the doors a few minutes later, but when he did, he didn't recognize the location. Gone was the laboratory the time machine had been in minutes before, and in its place was wide open fields.

Troy went back to the seat and sat down heavily.

He had become the second person to travel back in time.


End file.
